Dissected

"..the biblical stories that cause the most cognitive dissonance to our logical minds often contain the greatest revelations. Instead of dissecting Scripture, we need to let Scripture dissect us - our thoughts and attitudes, our dreams and desires, our fears and hopes. To often we approach stories like this one as if God is on trial, but it's not His character that is in question. It's our character that is on the stand...."

-Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From A Totally Different Life, page 41
(reference is to Genesis 22, Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac)

Worth a Look

Some links worth a look:

Why Doesn't God Always Heal the Sick? - Sam Storms

Warning About Fake Facebook Pages Asking for Money

Is God's Presence Limited to Scripture? - Rachel Held Evans

Church Should be a Taboo Free Zone

Luther on Bible Reading

In looking back over my blog posts the past month or so, I think that I appear to be on a Martin Luther kick. So be it. I wish the good doctor were around today to be a blogger. I'd read his web page - It certainly would not be boring!

Here's another good Luther gem.

“In truth you cannot read too much in Scriptures;and what you read you cannot read too carefully,and what you read carefully you cannot understand too well,and what you understand well you cannot teach too well,and what you teach well you cannot live too well.”

–Martin Luther, WA 53, 218

Hat Tips: Joshua Harris, Eucatastrophe 101

Luther's Advice to Preachers

"In truth you cannot read too much in Scriptures; and what you read you cannot read too carefully, and what you read carefully you cannot understand too well,and what you understand well you cannot teach too well,and what you teach well you cannot live too well."

--Martin Luther, WA 53, 218; emphasis mine.

HT: Joshua Harris and Between Two Worlds

Reference Rainbow

When Christoph Römhild, a Lutheran pastor in Hamburg, Germany, sent Carnegie Mellon Ph.D. student Chris Harrison a list of 63,779 cross-references between the Bible's 1,189 chapters, the two became enthralled with elegantly showing the interconnected nature of Scripture. Each bar along the horizontal axis represents a chapter, with the length determined by the number of verses. (Books alternate in color between white and light gray.) Colors represent the distance between eferences. Graphic by Chris Harrison, Carnegie Mellon University

Hat Tip: Reference Rainbow Christianity Today